In recent years, Harold Bloom's The Book of J and Friedman's own Who Wrote the Bible? have made the short work called J known to the public. But in The Hidden Book in the Bible Friedman presents his landmark discovery that "J is not a work. It is the beginning section of a work: a long, exquisitely connected prose composition full of artistry and power."<BR>Using a creative blend of scholarship and detective work, Friedman has joined together this story from the dawn of written history, and what emerges is astonishing. Far from a primitive first attempt at writing, it is an exciting and complex saga, a passionate work of love, deception, war, and redemption. Readers will experience the story that has not been read as a single continuous narrative for almost three millennia.<BR>Friedman presents the work itself in a bold translation that is remarkably faithful to the original. It begins with a well-known tale of the deity's creation of a paradise that goes wrong and then conveys a sweep of history, telling the story of a family through twelve generations: a story of deception and recompense, of powerful loves and sibling rivalries, of wars and spies. The family becomes a nation, the nation finds a ruling family, and they find their way to peace. The author of this saga crafts a compelling and densely woven tale of family struggles, bitter betrayal, and, finally, the birth of a great kingdom under Solomon, the son of David.